Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Sky Is Crying
2. Baby Please Set a Date
3. Held My Baby Last Night
4. Dust My Broom
5. Bobby's Rock
6. Rollin' and Tumblin'
7. Done Somebody Wrong
8. Something Inside Me
9. I'm Worried
10. Fine Little Mama
11. I Need You
12. Early One Morning
13. I Can't Stop Loving You
14. Strange Angels
15. She Done Moved
16. My Baby's Gone
17. Stranger Blues
18. Anna Lee
19. My Bleeding Heart
20. Standing at the Crossroads
21. One Way Out
22. My Kind of Woman
23. Person to Person
24. Find My Kind of Woman [Alternate Version]
25. Find My Kind of Woman
26. So Unkind

Disc 2:

1. Got to Move
2. Shake Your Moneymaker
3. Look on Yonder Wall
4. Sunnyland Train
5. Mean Mistreatin' Mama
6. Go Back Home Again
7. You Know You're Wrong
8. You Know You Done Me Wrong
9. I've Got a Right to Love My Baby
10. Every Day I Have the Blues
11. Dust My Broom
12. It Hurts Me Too
13. Talk to Me Baby
14. Can't Stop Lovin' My Baby
15. She's Got to Go
16. Hand in Hand
17. Pickin' the Blues
18. Twelve Year Old Boy
19. I Believe
20. I Gotta Go Now
21. Up Jumped Elmore
22. Make My Dreams Come True
23. Back in Mississippi (A Conversation)
24. Black Snake Blues

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #343695 in Music
• Released on: 1994-05-26
• Format: Box set

Customer Reviews

The ultimate collection of Elmore James' later recordings
Once you've scooped up James' earlier recordings (the '51-'56 singles on Meteor and Flair), this is where you go for the rest. These two CDs contain (almost) every song Elmore James recorded for Bobby Robinsons Fire, Fury and Enjoy labels down in Louisiana in the early 60s, and it is a veritable gold mine.

Among these fifty tracks are superb, powerful re-recordings of most of James' previous hits, as well as lots and lots of newer material. "Dust My Broom" rocks with unbelievable power, and James does a superb reading of Robert Nighthawk's "Anna Lee" and some fiery instrumentals, particularly "Bobby's Rock" and "Up Jumped Elmore".

Of all the blues box sets I have heard, the material on this album is of the most consistently high quality. There is nary a weak track among the fifty, and even the lesser known songs are great. Just listen to "She's Got To Go", "Talk To Me Baby" (originally recorded for Chess Records), "Early One Morning" and the powerful "Look On Yonder Wall".
If you like Elmore James and his fiery slide guitar attack, larger-than-life voice and rocking sax-and-piano arrangements, you can't go wrong with this incredible set of music. It's better than Muddy Waters' Chess box set, and at least as good as Howlin' Wolf's.

A Voice That Won't Quit
Am I crazy or is Elmore James one of the best blues vocalists? He's so powerful, I couldn't stand it at first. This CD has lots of Elmore's best cuts but no notes on recording dates or fellow musicians. There's some notes on his personal/recording history.

Leads off with "Dust My Broom", sounding great, "Done Somebody Wrong" - again great , then "Sky is Crying", beautiful. "Look on Yonder Wall" is fine,too. Then a very competitive "Standing at the Crossroads". My favorite cut on the CD is next, "Mean Mistreatin' Mama" which somehow makes it very real for me that Elmore was a radio repairman, reworking his own amps. Compare James' version of "It Hurts Me Too" to Clapton's version on "From th Cradle"; Elmore really has the voice of a century worth of living. The last three cuts have poor sound quality.

There may be better Elmore James compilations, this was my introduction. And for that, I'm grateful.

AMAZING BluesMan
Elmore James is a magician on the guitar and for expressing blues music. Eric Clapton happened to introduce me to the blues genre some ten years ago by his release of unplugged and subsequent From the Cradle. From that point I have wandered through the likes of BB, Albert, and Freddie King, TBONE, Cotton and others. On first listen to this album, James really took me. His playing and vocals simply jam the blues, this is really exciting music and it seems so fresh and new. James must have influenced everyone, because his guitar riffs and playing seem to be present in all the other blues I own. Simply a great set of music, Elmore is an artist that you should certaintly get.